FedEx now hiring up to 30 employees needed for spring opening at Watertown center

FedEx is seeking to hire 18 to 30 employees who will work at its 64,000-square-foot distribution center under construction at the county industrial park off outer Coffeen Street, the new headquarters is for the Watertown FedEx that has outgrown its Fisher Road building.

The shipping company is now accepting applications for customer service, advertising, sales and management positions to work at the distribution center in the spring.

Salaries for the part- and full-time positions will range from $325 to $575 a week, including a $500 signing bonus. Interviews and training for the positions will be offered at its headquarters in Syracuse, and employees are expected to start work in March. In total, the center is expected to employ up to 100 part-time and full-time workers during times of peak employment.

SunCap Property Group, Charlotte, N.C., started construction at the 11.5-acre lot in early August. The project was initially set to break ground in the spring, but was delayed while the developer waited for taxing jurisdictions to approve a 10-year tax abatement granted by state Real Property Law. That abatement was approved by the town of Watertown, General Brown Central School District and Jefferson County.

On Friday, about a dozen construction workers at the site were busy pouring the concrete foundation for the western wall. That end will be the main unloading area with 17garage doors, according to the project blueprint. Packages will be unloaded on two large conveyor belts spanning the length of the building. After they are scanned and sorted, packages will be loaded into trucks parked alongside the conveyer belts. Loaded trucks will exit the building on the east end.

General contractor Zirkelbach Construction, Palmetto, Fla., was hired by SunCap to manage the project because of its experience building FedEx centers across the country. But project superintendent Rick L. Parsons, who is managing the construction, said the work mostly will be completed by local subcontractors. Workers at the site Friday, for example, were employed by Watertown Concrete and Widrick Construction, Adams Center.

We always try to hire local if we can, Mr. Parsons said.

Construction will be completed through the fall and winter months, he said, with an expected completion date of March 31.

A call to Jonathan L. Greene, a SunCap representative, was not returned Friday.

FedEx previously had sought to build its facility on Lot 11 until Eagle Beverage in December abandoned its plan to move from its location in Pamelia to the warehouse planned at Lot 12. FedEx decided that switching to the former Eagle site would be advantageous because design plans there already were established. FedEx slightly downsized the warehouse designed by Eagle Beverage from 72,000 to 64,000 square feet.

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